On Sunday, May 4th local time, the second match of the Polish Przyga Playoffs third place deciding match between Warsaw and Jastrziebuski Wenger was held, with Warsaw winning 3-1 (28-30, 26-24, 25-21, 25-20) against Jastrziebuski.
Jastrzebski finished first in the regular season, while Warsaw finished second, and advanced to the playoffs, but both lost the semi-finals with one win and two losses, and went on to play in the third-place match. The third-place match will be played in a best-of-three format, and the team that finishes third will be awarded the right to play in next season's European Champions League.
The first match was held at Jastrziebuski's home field, and Warsaw won 3-0 without any trouble. In the second match, held in Warsaw, Jastrziebuski won the first set after a close match thanks to the efforts of OH Fornal and others, but Warsaw, with points accumulated mainly from OP Błoč and OH Brand, took the second set after a close match. In the third set, OP Błoč scored 10 points by himself, and in the fourth set, thanks to the efforts of both MB Kochanowski and MB Wrona's mid-range shots, Warsaw won both sets to decide the match.
The MVP was OP Bounci, who entered the match midway through the first set and played a major role, scoring the most points of both teams with 19 points (18 attacks, 1 block), with an attack efficiency rate of 531 TP3T. This was his first full-fledged appearance since the quarterfinals, but he saved his team with several powerful spikes from his left arm. The performance of both middle-range players MB Kochanovski and MB Vrona also stood out in this match, scoring 14 points (10 attacks, 3 blocks, 1 serve) and 11 points (7 attacks, 4 blocks) respectively, with both having very high attack efficiency rates of over 601 TP3T.
On the other hand, OH Tille (the second son of the new Japan Men's National Team coach), who injured his right chest in the first game, was wearing a libero uniform and was on the bench but was unable to play. He said that it would be difficult for him to play this season.
Jastrzciembski, who lost the match, played good volleyball in the first two sets, but lost his concentration after that. In the third set, he missed many attacking chances due to small mistakes, and in the fourth set, he made more attacking mistakes in important situations at the end. OH Fornal fought well with 19 points (18 attacking, 1 serving), but he also lost his performance in the fourth set.
Despite both teams finishing high in the regular season, they lost the third game of the semi-finals in three sets and missed out on a place in the finals, but while Warsaw was performing well, Jastrzebski was not performing as well as he had been up to that point and seemed to have yet to recover from his semi-final defeat.
When asked about this after the match, Warsaw manager Grabban said, "We have had bad experiences this season, losing in the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League and the semifinals of the Polish Cup, and have bounced back from those. But they have been doing so well so far, finishing first in the regular season, reaching the final four of the Champions League, and winning the Polish Cup, that they are probably not able to cope with this new setback."
With this win, Warsaw is one win away from third place. Jastrzebski needs to win three more games from here to win. However, the fifth match is scheduled for Tuesday, May 13th, and the Champions League semi-finals are just around the corner on Saturday, May 17th, so some people in the team are wondering if they will deliberately lose the third match to prepare for the Champions League. Winning the Champions League is the highest honor for a European club, so this may be the more realistic option.
Upcoming fixtures for the Polish League third place playoff
(Japan time)
Round 3: Wednesday, May 7th, 24:30
Available on VBTV
Photo: TOSHIKI, plusliga.pl
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